February 1st - 7th 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
We're both fit and well after yesterdays walk. No aches or pains.
So in the afternoon we went for a walk to see the donkeys.
Here's Rosie.
Domingo wouldn't pose for me. He thought I had his food, and followed me everywhere.
We fed the donkeys and had a packed lunch.
Then we walked back home with the Border Collies.
We passed Antonio with his 300+ goats.
Here are a just a few ...
They were munching everything in sight. This orange tree was being stripped by a goat up on it's hind legs.
Back home we watched Masterchef.
Then we worked on the notebooks. I did the huge blog page you may have seen yesterday ...
I started readng 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown.
Jane has been shopping to Algatocín, whilst I worked on the website.
We have a few more properties for sale which we hope to add over the weekend.
When Jane returned, we walked down to the carnicería Antonia to buy some chorizo ibérico. The tasty spanish sausage, made with the meat of locally raised, acorn fed, black footed pigs.
We met our guests, Ann, Bryon, Mary and David.
They were out shopping in the village. Trying to find the butchers, the bakers ... etc.
None of which have signs outside their shops.
We called into Pub Bar Dami for a coffee.
Andrés Sánchez Snr. kindly bought it for us. Andrés has broken his arm in a fall, he was putting a brave face on it.
Back home we put all our water containers in the boot of the Clio. It's a good time to fill them up as the spring at El Chorruelo is flowing fast.
We drove to the 'piedra del reyes' and parked. We walked down to see the donkeys.
We waited for them to plod up the steep hill to get their seed.
Then we had to plod up an even steeper hill back to the car. It is getting easier every time we do it. After a week of walking for a few hours a day, we can both feel and see the difference in our leg muscles. Our heart and lungs must be benefiting too, as we're both out of breath after this climb, but we are recovering faster than we did a couple of weeks ago.
We stopped at the spring to fill the containers.
Back home we cooked our Andalucian chorizo stew, with onions, potatoes and chick peas. At the end we added some strands of saffron. The Spanish tend to use a very scary looking yellow food colouring in place of Saffron. We have some, it doesn't have any 'E' numbers on the packet and doesn't say what it is made from ... it looks as if you would get a very high reading from it with a Geiger counter.
The stew was excellent with chunks of freshly baked bread from the panadería.
We watched Masterchef.
We spent the evening surfing the internet.
Web site statistics from January saw an average of just under 1,100 visitors per day to the website.
Peaking at 1340 visitors on the 30th January 2007 . A new record. Thank you.
We've also had a number of e-mails recently from blog readers.
We love getting your e-mails so please write and introduce yourselves.
Lately as we've been getting ready for bed, we've heard a little tinkling noise coming from the bathroom.
Jane caught our little Siamese cat Sophie peeing in the bidet.
She positions herself above the plug hole and ...
Jane managed to get a photo.
I'm not sure what we can do to stop her or if we want to. It does save on cat litter. If we could get them all to do this and flush afterwards it would be fantastic.
Life in Andalucía ... never a dull moment.
A cloudy start to the day but it is very mild.
We spent the day around the house.
The first rest day from walking for a while.
At lunchtime we had a few rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning.
Then the heavens opened for an hour.
Later in the afternoon it cleared and was a lovely evening although the sun never really broke through.
I listened to Newcastle United put in another poor performance at Fulham. Losing 2-1.
In the evening we watched 'Notting hill' Starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. When will Hugh Grant actually take an acting role where he doesn't play himself?
There are some really funny moments in the soppy favourite of Jane's.
I didn't watch Match of the Day and we watched an hour of 'Alien' starring Sigourney Weaver.
Jane took this lovely photograph of our little Spanish cat 'Mota de Oro'
This is Laura our oldest cat she must be at least fifteen years old.
She has a furry igloo bed that she spends a lot of time in.
A beautiful day.
We walked to see the donkeys.
We took the Border Collies and enjoyed the sunshine. Both of us were wearing t-shirts.
We saw Griffon Vultures, a Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Jay and Red Legged Partridge. Plus the usual smaller woodland and hedgerow birds.
The Red Legged Partridge did it's best to give us a heart attack. Breaking cover from a few metres behind us. Although this was not as bad as the other day when two broke cover
a couple of metres from our heads.
We passed this mule loaded with firewood.
Oxalis Pes-caprae.
The sky was a wonderful shade of blue.
You can see the Oxalis all over the hillside.
The dogs just love it. We let deaf old Ferdy off his lead for a run.
We arrived at the finca.
We walked down to see them at the bottom of the land.
We then walked with them back up the steep hill to give them their food.
Domingo.
We passed our neighbour Cristóbal on the way home. He was driving out with his son Adrian and their two dogs. We thanked him because earlier in the afternoon he'd kindly pruned our grapevine for us.
Later in the evening we watched 'Waking the Dead'.
Then the remainder of 'Alien' starring Sigourney Weaver, which we'd started to watch last night.
Another mild and dry day.
I spent the early morning on the internet until Telefonica's ADSL network crashed.
I then spent a couple of hours checking it wasn't at our end before I telephone the Telefonica technical department where I got a message apologising for any inconvenience.
We went to see the donkeys with Peter and Clarissa, friends from the village.
The donkeys were at the gate which was good news.
We introduced them to Peter and Clarissa. I think they liked Domingo. He's an impressive good looking donkey.
I had my camera but stupidly had forgotten to put the chip in, so no photographs today.
The dogs were enjoying themselves as usual, showing off running backwards and forwards 'rounding us up'.
We walked back to Benarrabá but took the 'Ruta Azul' in reverse and went across the arroyo Infiernillo which was flowing well.
Clarissa was picking water cress for soup. I started to pick some. As soon as Clarissa gave us the advice not to put it in salads because of liver fluke from sheep ... I knew Jane wouldn't touch it if it cooked for four hours.
We stopped at the fuente at the bottom of the village.
It has recently been renovated and looks a lot better than it did.
We said goodbye to Peter and Clarissa and walked home.
We watched Masterchef and cooked a chicken curry for ourselves.
I started to watch 'Hero' starring Jet Li. I'll have to watch the final hour next time that it's on. With Film 4 that'll be very soon.
A beautiful day.
We went shopping in Algatocín before driving to Gaucín.
We went exploring up a track just North of Gaucín. Where Peter and Clarissa told us there was a bullring being constructed. They also said that there were some pine woods to walk in.
We found the bullring in the woods. Quite an impressive ring, a lot bigger than we'd expected.
We walked up into the pines. At the top of the hill we got some great views of Gaucín.
It was quite hazy looking down towards the coast where there is often a blue hue.
We walked on into the woods. Some sheep ran ahead of us.
The southern end of the Sierra de Libar.
The pathways through the pines were lovely, we were enjoying the sunshine and the fresh air.
At this time of year processionary caterpillars build silk nests in the tops of pine trees.
These hairy caterpillars form chains, head to tail and march off to feed (usually at night), they also do this when they change nest sites. So not all silk nests are occupied.
The hairs on the caterpillars can cause serious reactions so you should avoid touching them.
The biggest danger though is to pets, especially dogs. If a dog licks the caterpillars or gets hairs in it's mouth it is in serious trouble, as necrosis will occur and the dog will die a horrible death or have to be put to sleep.
If we are walking in areas where we see these nests, we always put our dogs on their leads.
To the North in the Rio Guadiaro, the Sierra de Libar and the pueblo of Cortes de la Frontera.
We caught up and passed the sheep, who had headed to the safety of higher ground.
I have no idea what breed this is but the horns are impressive.
We followed a path down that circled back towards the car.
Here's Jane enjoying the sunshine.
Back in Benarrabá, we put the Border Collies on their leads, got the donkey's food and went back out.
Oxalis Pes-caprae and Vinca's (Periwinkles) covering a shady bank.
The countryside is really starting to show signs that Spring is coming.
This mule popped his head over a fence to watch us pass by.
The donkeys were well. They were waiting for us near their food bins.
We spent some time with them whilst they ate, and we watched them rolling in the dust, which they enjoy doing after they've been fed.
We walked back up the steep hill onto the fairly flat track back to Benarrabá.
In the evening we watched Masterchef then spent the evening on the computers.
Another mild, beautiful day. Lots of fluffy cumulus, so we're having sunny intervals.
Rain is forecast, but hopefully it will wait until we're back from our walk.
We left a little later than usual to feed the donkeys.
We took the Border Collies along, they're getting lots of long walks now.
They certainly sleep well when we get home.
It was a lovely walk, although we've done it many times recently. The views are stunning, and the colours of the hillsides change as new growth and flowers open. The light in Andalucía is fantastic, especially on days like today, with the the clouds casting shadows across the mountains and the valley.
The donkeys were lower down the mountainside today, so we called them, and then waited for them to plod up. Their coats looked in great condition, Rosie especially was shining.
We fed them their seed and some peelings from the kitchen which Rosie loves.
We waited for them to finish before we headed home.
A light drizzle fell for a couple of minutes. We were about fifteen minutes away from Benarrabá.
We thought that we were in for a soaking, but we got home dry.
In the evening we watched Masterchef.
Then I watched the first half of the England v Spain friendly. An unconvincing performance yet again.
We both went on the computers.
I watched the match out of the corner of my eye, with the commentary off.
Spain won 0-1. Crouch was terrible, compared to the Spanish attackers who had poise and composure, he lacks both. Hopefully Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney will both be fit for the last few European Qualifiers.
It had started raining a little earlier, nothing too heavy. We like it when it rains at night.
More please!